Professor Adrian Bell at the CFA Middle East Investment Conference

For a brief moment on Tuesday 21st July, the online database of medieval soldiers (http://www.medievalsoldier.org/) hosted at the ICMA Centre, was the news! This database of soldiers serving the English crown between 1369-1454 and including the names of men-at-arms and archers who served at famous battles such as Agincourt in 1415, made the front page of the BBC website, was the most shared site on BBC news online, and interviews were given to BBC Radio Four and 5Live, local radio and even the national radio broadcaster in Canada. Some 250,000 service records are now available to freely search and the database recorded some 125,000 hits on Tuesday alone. The database has gone from strength to strength and this publicity has made the online database extremely popular, and it has now registered 3.5 million hits in just three months - demonstrating the interest of our research to the public at large.

The ICMA Centre has been ranked 2nd for employability by The Times Good University 2011*. This ranking demonstrates the emphasis the Centre places on producing graduates with skills and knowledge of real value to institutions in the financial markets.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today introduced a 1% cap on early exit pension charges. But what does this mean?